We barely lost to two of the top tier teams in the PAC 12 with the backup QB by a combined 4 points. – After having lost 8 guys to the draft and 15-16 guys in total to the NFL. Consider the lillies of the goddamned field. This team is good…has a good foundation of coaches and players and are on the low side of it high ceiling potential, still barely losing top tiered games.

Tickets

So a few questions about the delay of game penalty on the defensive sub.

I haven’t gone back and looked at the play so am looking for some insight.

1. Did we actually sub? Whit kept yelling, “WE DIDN’T SUB!!!!’

Was that true?

2. It looked like the defender kept running around for like three or four seconds not knowing where he should line up, which the ref kept watching as he stood over the ball.

Why wouldn’t a subbing defender just continue to run around like a chicken with it’s head cut off if it improves the chances of a delay of game penalty?

3. One ref was signalling to reset the play clock. Who do you look at? The guy signalling to reset the play clock, the umpire standing over the ball?

How can one crew of officials be so freaking disorganized? They looked like the freaking keystone cops out there.

We had a chance to win, and didn’t, we lost to a team who overcame three turnovers, and a couple plays could have been overcome, but man it just added to the frustration seeing how bad the officials were on Saturday.

I still rate it as the best officiated game on the season. But the standards are so low for PAC12 officiating it still sucks. The only impactful call was that knee being down. Yeah maybe it changes Utah play calling at that moment when they took the delay. Overall wasn’t a huge call.

So overall, I side with @battlegroundute that I felt like I didn’t notice the officials much of the game, and when they did call penalties I felt they were pretty accurate…but their miss on the 4th and 9 where the receiver’s knee was down, likely cost us the game. If the guy in the replay booth doesn’t fall asleep and buzzes that play to be reviewed, we would have held them on downs, gotten the ball back with 6:25 left in the 3rd, relatively good field position (our own 30), up two touchdowns and still had the momentum. Instead, they blew the call, SC scores a few plays later, and we couldn’t stop them the rest of the game. Some bad calls end up having very little impact on the game, this one was absolutely huge. I hate when people try to pin a loss on the refs, but in this instance it’s hard to not look at that and not conclude that their error didn’t have a serious negative impact on the outcome of the game for us.

The problem with the spread is that once you hit the

Red zone you run out of space to spread out. That’s where Utah needs to switch things up. You don’t have to get crazy creative, but use the horses you have.

Why don’t we go on WR (Carrington), two TE’s (Handley and Fakailoatonga) and put Ippolito in as a FB. That’s a jumbo package. Ippolito is always a blocker, Moss a runner and let the TE’s go out in pass coverage after an initial block.

Allow the QB to read the defense and either give it to Moss or pull it and naked bootleg out to the TE side with Carrington trailing back across the middle.

You have HB run, QB run, TE dump, TE cross and WR cross all in one formation. That’s five plays from one.

Not sure if already posted: in case you wanted to be sick about loss again

USC 4th down conversion in 4th quarter just before tying the game. Receiver’s knee clearly down a full yard short. Replay official doesn’t even buzz down to take a closer look? Whitt doesn’t have someone in booth to help out?

Hypothetical.

We had all three timeouts when we lined up for the two.

If you’re the OC, do you use this opportunity to mess with the D?

First, come out and line up in a Wild Duck formation. Force them to use their last TO. If they don’t then you call time out. Then come out with another off beat formation, such as a Power-I with Leki Fotu as the lead back. Then try another whacked out formation. Get the D good and befuddled. Be ready to quick count and go from one or all of these formations.

I originally thought that Whitt trotting out the offense was a brillaint ruse to get USC to call a time out, which they did. That way after we kicked the extra point, they would have no timeouts left. Brilliant plan, except that wasn’t the plan.

I wish we would use Chase Hansen occasionally in the offense. He used to be a QB so he should be able to throw, he’s quick, and he’s got that bulldog attitude. He reminds me a lot of Weddle. Obviously you don’t want him getting injured but why not throw him in for a play or two? Especially on the goal line.

FWIW, Jerry Palm at CBS Sports has us in the Holiday Bowl vs Michigan. Of course, the dude clearly has money on Clemson getting into the Playoff. Plus, there is no way Ohio St and Penn St play each in the playoff. Not if one of them won’t be B10 champ.